How A Kid Should Be
by becca428
Summary: Joel and Ellie arrived back at Tommy's after their journey to find the Fireflies. Tommy and Maria decided to celebrate for their return. They can both have a normal life and Ellie can finally be a kid she had always been.


**AN: Hey, how's it going bros? I'm doing mighty fine (despite the fact that I have less than a week of summer vacation left). I feel like I didn't do anything this summer, like going on vacation and what-not. All I did was go to marching band practice, perform in parades, and trying to move in my grandparents' home (no one lives there anymore, so mom wants to move in). I even said that I would write more… I broke that promise bros, and I'm sorry for that. **** Now I'm currently on my laptop (which is the schools) typing this down and whatever. But which means I can write more! Which is a good thing, I guess. But my summer wasn't all that bad. Mainly because I got to hang out with my friends more often, so yay for that! So, you bros guess it by the title and summary, it's another LOU story (or…an oneshot), yeah. I have a couple I'm thinking about writing at the moment, but IDK which one I should do? Ummm….uhhhhh, I'll figure it out. But anyway, here's my fabulous story. :P**

* * *

Joel and Ellie finally arrived back at Tommy's settlement. Tommy and Maria couldn't be happier. They wanted to celebrate their arrival by having a big barbeque cook out and movie night, much to Ellie's delight. There were hamburgers, hot dogs, and even some juicy steaks. That includes with the side of delicious corn bread, mash potatoes, and fresh-cut vegetables. They listen to classic music and even played games. One particular game caught Ellie's attention: a simple game of football.

Ellie begged Joel to play. He didn't want to, at first, but then he later complied when she gave him puppy-dog eyes. He wouldn't do it for anyone else, no, but for Ellie, that's a different story. Seeing her being happy and child-like, he couldn't say no. Henry was right after all, about one day kids would be kids again and she's acting like one: a happy and naïve kid.

This was their final game of football, Joel's team against Tommy's. Ellie was on Tommy's team, with a couple of her new friends she'd met earlier: Cody, Kylee, and Dallace. His team falling behind by 2 point, so he decided to plan out one final strategy that could beat the opposing team. He wished his team good luck and gets to their positions.

The game begins and ran at where they needed to be. Tommy threw the ball at Cody before he got tacked by Rick, one of Joel's teammates. Cody tosses the ball to Kylee and she ran to Ellie to give her the ball.

"Now's your chance, Ellie!" Kylee screams. "Go, go, go!"

Ellie grabs the ball from her and holds the ball so tight that her knuckles were turning white. She's starts to run to the other side of the field. She can see the goal and now was far away from everyone else, no one can stop her now.

"Oh my god", Ellie said to herself, "I'm gonna make it! I'm gonna win it!"

She was 30 yards away from it and she was already getting tired. She went to check if anyone was coming after her. Her eyes widen as she sees Joel right behind her tail.

"Oh no, you don't", she screams at him.

She starts to run faster than she had ever before. Her smile was wide one her face, as she's getting closer and closer to it. She crossed every yard line: 25 yards, 20 yards, 15 yards, 10 yards! She's so close to win victory for her and her team. She couldn't be happier.

Her wide smile soon fades away as she felt a pair of strong arms around her waist. The ball falls out of her arms as Joel picked her up and swung her around.

"No, goddammit, no!" Ellie cusses out, obviously not happy but has a smile on her face.

"Gotcha, kiddo", Joel chuckles.

"What the fuck, man?!" Ellie screams. "That was my moment!"

"Darlin', it's my job to take your moment away from ya."

"No!" Ellie playfully wines. Her bangs fell in front of her face as she starts to blush. "Okay, old geezer, put me down." She emphases the word _old geezer_, referring to him and his age.

"Excuse me?" He chuckles and raises his eyebrow at her.

"I said", she laughs and looks straight into his eyes, "Put me down, _old geezer_!"

He eyed her back, ginning. "You're gonna regret say that", he chuckles in a deep, southern accent. His one arm starts to loosen around her.

"And why would I do thAAAt?!"

She feels his squirming fingers tickling her side. She starts to laugh; she closes her eyes as starts flaring her arms and legs, trying to get out of his strong grip.

"Joel, stop!" She laughs out loud. "You… fucking… asshole!" She couldn't stop laughing.

Joel couldn't help but laugh himself. He's enjoying this as much as she does. "C'mon, give up now?"

"Never!"

Joel starts to tickle under her arms, it made her laugh and squirm even more. Ellie couldn't take it anymore after that.

"Okay, okay!" Ellie pleaded, "Please stop, please, I surrender!"

After she pleaded nicely, he stops tickling her. He gently puts on the ground; Ellie immediately drops to the ground. She's on her back, clutching at her side, catching her breath. Her smile is as wide as ever.

"That's a lesson learn for calling me an _old geezer_", he chuckles.

She giggles at him. He held out a hand to her, she accepted it and pulled herself up. She wipes her eyes and dusted off the dirt on her hoodie and faded jeans.

"So what movie are we watching anyway?" Ellie questions him.

"Uhhh…" Joel ran a hand through his beard. "Tommy told me that we're watching Back to The Future."

Ellie raised her eyebrow. "What is that?"

"It's a movie."

"No shit, Sherlock, what is it about?"

"I can't tell you."

"Why?!"

"Because I'll spoil it for you, that's why."

She moan in annoyance and pouted. He rolled his eyes at her and smirked a bit. He thought about from earlier. Maria gave him a couple of things to make with Ellie. He remembered making it with Sarah on their camping trips. She always loved making them over the open fire, and getting to munch on it afterwards. Oh, good times.

"I'll tell you what, when we're watching the movie, how about I teach you to make some s'mores."

Ellie's eyes widen. "Really?" He nodded at her. "How did you get the stuff for it?"

"Maria. She gave it to me earlier so you and I can enjoy it."

"That's awesome!" She smiles up at him. "I'll tell her thanks when I see her."

"Yeah, I reckon she'll appreciate that."

Ellie's grabs his hand and tugged him along with her.

"C'mon, let's go and find a spot. So we can make those bad-boys."

"Ellie, the movie doesn't start in 10 minutes." He smiles fondly at her.

"Well, it's a good head start on making them before the movie begins, yeah?"

* * *

After they stopped out their house, getting what they need, Ellie finally got to pick a spot for the both of them. She picked a decent spot up on top of the hill, underneath a tree. As Joel was making the fire, she laid down a thin blanket on the ground, so they won't sit in the wet grass. Then she got out the ingredients to make the s'mores and set it in of her. She looked over at Joel and sees the campfire all fired up and ready to go.

"Alright, Ellie, give me a marshmallow."

She opens a bag of marshmallows and grabs one out of bag. She hands it to him; he took it and put it on the stick.

"This doesn't take a rocket scientist to do this, it's very simple. You just put it over the fire until it looks brown or…close to it, as I should say." He took his marshmallow and put it over the fire, rotating it every so often. He kept doing it until he was satisfied with it. "Okay, I want you to hold it for a second or two."

Ellie grabbed the stick from him as he was getting the gram crackers and chocolate out. She can already smell the goodness of the toasty, golden-brown marshmallow. It was too tempting to eat.

"Now put it together and you're ready to eat it."

She gives him a small smile and nod in reply. She put the marshmallow between the gram crackers and the chocolate and put it together. She pulls out the stick and set it beside her. She took her s'more and split it in half to give to Joel. As she was doing it, the chocolate melted a bit and it dripped all over her hands.

"Oh god", she mutters. As she pulled it apart, the gooiness of the marshmallow starts to stretch out. "Here, take it."

He happily took it and took a bite of it. He closed his eyes as he was savoring the flavor. It brought back good nostalgic memories: from him being a little kid up till spending quality time with his daughter, eating this good, delicious treat.

Ellie hesitantly took her first bite of her s'more. She taste the sweet flavor of the marshmallow and the chocolate on the tip of her taste buds, it made it even better with the gram cracker combine with the mixture. It blew her away.

"Holy shit", she said. "This is the best thing I've ever tasted in my life!" A smile formed on her face as she looked at Joel. "Is this what childhood taste like?!"

Joel laughs at her little comment. "Yeah", he chuckles as he puts an arm around her. "Yeah, I reckon it does." Ellie smiles up at him, he did the same.

Ellie looks over and see the intro credits on the screen. "Oh look, the movie is about to begin. Now I can get to know what the hell that Back to The Future thing is all about."

Joel rolls his eyes once more and smiles back down at her before turning his attention to the movie.

* * *

After the movie was over, everyone got up and went to their homes. Joel rubs his eyes with his thumb and forefinger to wipe out the sleep in his eyes. He looks down at his little companion, snuggled up against him, who was all covered in s'mores from earlier. He chuckles down at her and brushes her bangs behind her ear.

"Ellie", Joel whispers to her. "Ellie", he said a bit louder as he nudge her awake.

"…What?" Ellie groans.

"The movie's over, let's go home."

He feels her shift as she was stretching and wiping the sleep out of her eyes. Joel put out the now dim fire as Ellie gathers their stuff to take back. Then they starting walking back to a place they thought they could never have: home. They walked into their home, putting the blanket back on the couch and store the rest of the s'mores in the cupboard.

"Alright, my little time traveler, it's time to go to bed." He looks over at her, who was clearly tired and yawns.

"Can I stay up for 5 minutes?" Ellie looks up at Joel. "Please?"

He thought about it for a moment, and then he sighs as he sat down on the couch. "5 minutes, then you're going straight to bed."

She nods her head in response and crash on the couch with him. She laid her head on his lap, getting comfortable as possible. Joel rested a hand on top of her forehead, rubbing her thumb across her skin.

"Do you know what?" Ellie said to him, in her now quiet tone. "Screw being an astronaut. I wanna be a time traveler."

"That a fact?" Joel said, fondly looking down at her. He started running his finger through her hair. He sees her eyes flutter shut.

"Yeah", she said as she's starting to drift off to sleep. "That'd be awesome to go back in time to do whatever, you know."

He kept running his fingers through her hair as he starts to feel sleep starts to take him as well. By this point, Ellie is fast asleep. Carefully as he possibly can, trying not to wake her, Joel shifts to lie down. He puts a pillow behind his head as he now looks down at Ellie. She was all snugged up in his arms with a faint smile on her face; it made him smile.

"Night, baby girl", he whispers to her.

He put a kiss on her forehead and drift off to sleep.

They're both happy. They have a family to love and care for, a place to live to call their home, and could have a normal life in the settlement. Now they can both closed the chapter from their journey and start a brand new beginning.

* * *

**AN: Yay, it's done! OMG XD I'd started this story this evening from 7-7:30 up to 11:15…holy crap, I was so damn focus in the story, I didn't realized how long I was doing it until I checked the time LOL :P I had such a fun time writing it, I really did. I picked out Back to The Future for a good reason. Since Ellie is in that Sci-Fi stuff, like Savage Starlight, so…yeah :3 Dammit, dis child need to be happy and act how a happy teenage girl should act. They both need to happy! Mehhhh…That's a kick-start for me before I start school this Wednesday…unfortunately :/ Damn…I promise you bros, I'll try to write more (since I got my laptop back, haha :3) Imma gonna go and eat my Krave, I'm starving…bye! *brofist***


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